My Last Goodbye
by DwaejiTokki
Summary: Following a big fight with his friends, JD finds himself being ignored by those closest to him. Complete.


My Last Goodbye

 **Summary** : Following a big fight with his friends, JD finds himself being ignored by those closest to him. Complete.

 **Rating** : T

 **Disclaimer** : Never have and never will own _Scrubs._

It's impossible to avoid conflict.

Dr. Kelso reprimanded the drunk-looking janitor for not placing a wet floor sign again; two nurses squabbled over the new, hot radiologist; Ted rubbed a hand over his balding head as he looked forlornly at the broken doorknob in his hand.

The good news is that no matter how many arguments you get into with your friends, it never takes long for you both to get over it.

The hot radiologist winked as he walked down the hospital hallway, one of the squabbling nurses under each arm. Though the women both looked a little worse for wear, they were both smiling.

Of course, that's when it's only two of you fighting. When it's you against everyone else...Well, sometimes it takes a little longer for things to reset.

I came to a stop at the nurses' station, smirking casually as I ran a hand through my beautiful, artfully-arranged locks of luscious hair. Carla didn't even glance up, intent on the case file in her hands. Turk was glaring at a spot on the wall, unmoving. Elliot didn't seem to the notice the mascara tracks streaking her cheeks, but no one was going to say anything. Well, Dr. Cox might, but he was nowhere to be seen.

But, since it's already been a whole twenty-four hours since our big fight, I think it's safe to say we're all better now.

"Hey, Carla," I greeted, leaning an elbow up against the countertop.

No response. She didn't even pretend to not hear me.

"Are you still mad at me?" I asked, pursing my lips and putting a hand on my hip. "Still not talking?" When she still did not look up, not even to glare at me, I stood straight. "Okay."

I sauntered over to Turk next, spreading my arms for a hug. "Super Chocolate Bear!"

He didn't move, same as Carla. Knowing I wouldn't get anything out of him, at least not with Carla around, I turned to Elliot.

"Elliot," I sang, waving a hand in front of her unblinking face. "Mole Butt. Elliot. Oh, come on!"

Seeing that I was being ignored, I finally moved on. I was sure Dr. Cox would welcome me. But first I had to find him.

The reason my friends were so upset today was not _entirely_ that we had had a big fight, but that this morning when they came to work, they found out that someone everyone liked had been hospitalized after a terrible accident. I wasn't too sure on the specifics, and neither was anyone else, because no one had seen it happen. As far as anyone can tell, the patient had been crossing the street, then struck by a car that fled the scene.

In any case, the patient had been rushed into the operating room when another driver found him lying in the road and called an ambulance. After almost an entire night of emergency surgery to fix internal bleeding, the patient was transferred to the I.C.U. Unfortunately, he was in a coma, and no one expected him to wake up.

I finally found Dr. Cox in the patient's room, staring down at the broken figure in the bed. The man's still form was hooked up to life support - he was unable to breathe on his own. Road rash and broken bones weren't even the worst of it, though they were pretty bad. The brain hemorrhage was what kept him asleep, even though the hematoma had been drained during surgery.

I watched Dr. Cox through the window for a few minutes, giving him his privacy. Then I went in, smiling grandly.

It's always hard when a critical patient is someone close to you. Everyone who knew him at the hospital has been saying their goodbyes since this morning, and the patient's family had been called and were rushing in, though they weren't expected to arrive until that night.

Everyone was sure that he was going to die - except for Dr. Cox and me. We're pretty optimistic that our guy will pull through.

"Come on, Newbie," Dr. Cox muttered. His relatively blank face suddenly contorted into a scowl and he spun around, leading me back out of the patient room. He stormed back to the nurses' station, where my friends still were. They hadn't moved.

Which was understandable, considering the rough time they were having.

"All right, all right," Dr. Cox growled in his best angry voice, "I want to know why and I want to know how. I know that one of you worthless ne'er-do-wells was responsible for this, and if you peons think I'm not going to find out about it, we-he-he-hell," he grinned ferally, shaking his curly head, "you're wrong. Because I will find out which of you is to blame for this, and I will find out if _all_ of you is to blame, and once I find out, I'll...I'll..."

He seemed to struggle to find the right words, so I leant over his shoulder surreptitiously and tentatively supplied, "Force you to watch reruns of _Everwood_?"

Dr. Cox groaned loudly and turned to leave, muttering something under his breath as he went. When an intern tried to stop him and ask for his help, he knocked the files out of his hands, sending papers flying everywhere. The intern rushed to retrieve them.

I shrugged. Dr. Cox was Dr. Cox.

I wondered who Dr. Cox would be if he weren't Dr. Cox?

My head tilted to one side as I imagined.

 _Dr. Jan Itor was yelling at the interns to do their jobs right, brandishing a mop at the ones who were moving too slowly. "Come on," he urged Lisa, "put that swan in! Straighten that catheter! Wrap that wound!"_

 _A hand tapped Dr. Jan Itor on the shoulder, and the tall man turned around._

 _Cox was standing behind him, hand held out, lips pressed into a thin line. He looked very different in a blue uniform._

 _"Yeah, what do you want?" Dr. Jan Itor asked. "Shouldn't you be cleaning a toilet somewhere?"_

 _Cox chuckled wryly. "I should be mopping the third floor hallway, but_ _alas, I cannot, for some doctor has decided to take my mop and -"_

 _"Yeah, whatever. Here you go. I've got doctor things to do."_

 _Dr. Jan Itor slapped the mop handle back into Cox's waiting hand, then walked away. Cox scowled, bared his teeth, and snapped the mop in half._

I shook my head as I came back to the present. "Dr. Cox has hands as strong as Elliot's thighs."

Suddenly I realized that my friends had started talking.

Well, Turk had started talking, whispering sweet nothings into his wife's ear as she sobbed into his shoulder. Elliot was gone, but I knew she was in the nearest closest because I could hear her muffled sobs from here.

Everyone was taking things pretty hard. I would offer my comfort, but I decided, wisely, to stay back. I would wait for them to come to me.

Now, about our big fight.

It wasn't really much of a fight, unless you count Turk pushing me to the floor to defend Carla's honor and then Elliot starting a dog pile. I mean, I didn't _mean_ to insult Carla. Of course I didn't!

All I wanted was a ride home since Sasha's tires had been slasha'd. I stopped in the middle of the hallway to chuckle at my own humor. I wiped my eye, then shook my head to resume my serious, contemplative expression and continued on.

This is how it happened:

 _"Hello, Carla."_

 _"Hey, Bambi. Listen, the Ms. Harcourt in room 332 needs a -"_

 _"Ugh, what is that smell?" I wrinkled my nose and covered my mouth, looking around the nurses' station as people's attention were drawn. "It smells like week-old sewage and wet dog smothered in cinnamon_ _over here!"_

 _Carla's eyes filled with tears and her bottom lip quivered. "I tripped over Rowdy when I was getting out of the shower and fell into the toilet. I didn't have time to take another shower so I sprayed air freshener all over my clothes."_

 _I immediately lowered my hand from my nose and mouth to lean against the counter, taking the biggest whiff I could without giving myself an aneurysm. "You know, I love this new aroma. I think it should be made into a cologne so I can wear it every day for the rest of my life."_

 _My quick save turned out to not be a save, after all. As the other nurses snickered at Carla's misfortune and the tears fell from her hurt Latina eyes, I had the sinking feeling that something terrible was about to happen. I tried to make a run for it._

 _I was hit hard and fast. Before I even knew what was happening, I was on my back on the floor, groaning from the pain. Turk stepped over me to get to Carla, who wrapped her arms around him, bloody green scrubs and all._

 _"What's wrong, baby?"_

 _"JD hurt my feelings...!"_

 _I finally made it to my feet, struggling to get the breath to explain myself._

 _"Don't worry, baby, I got this."_

 _"C-Bear, I -"_

 _I never got the chance to finish, because Turk ducked and grabbed me around the waist, hoisting me into the air and flipping me behind him. Once more, with a loud grunt of excruciating agony, I found myself staring at the ceiling._

 _"Bam!" Turk yelled, wrapping an arm around Carla's shoulders. "That's what you get for messing with my Mexican lady!"_

 _"Turk, for the last time, I'm Dominican!"_

 _"Yeah, that's what I said, baby."_

 _And that was when Elliot appeared, impeccable timing as always. "What's going on?"_

 _Turk turned to her, and I decided to stay on the floor where it was safe. "JD hurt Carla's feelings."_

 _Elliot gasped. "What did he say?" she asked with crazy eyes, grabbing Carla's arms._

 _Carla's lip quivered again. "He said I smell bad."_

 _Elliot's head whipped around to glare at me. I wondered if maybe the floor wasn't such a safe place, after all. As the hundred and eight pound woman pounced on my stomach and perhaps ruptured several of my internal organs, I noticed the stunned posture of my mentor, Dr. Cox, watching from afar._

 _Unfortunately, I was too out of breath to call out to him for help, so I stretched my hand in his direction whilst pleading with my watering_ _eyes. Obviously he thought I was trying to hold him back from helping, because he gave me a thumbs-up._

 _Once Elliot let me up so I could breathe sweet, sweet air, I finally got to ask the question I had come with._

 _"So," I began, fixing the three of them with my trademark, charming grin. "Who wants to give me a ride home tonight?"_

 _Carla and Elliot glared at me, while Turk raised his eyebrows and smiled. "Yeah, man," Turk said. "Carla and I can -" One look at her withering look was enough to make his face fall, and he shook his head quickly. "Sorry, JD. No can do."_

 _"I'm sure you wouldn't want to ride in the car with me, anyway, since I'm stinky," Carla muttered. She slapped the case file onto my chest and turned on her heel._

 _"Oh, come on!" I called after her. "We can roll down the windows!"_

 _Elliot scoffed and pushed past me._

 _"Elliot, can I have a ride?"_

 _"I don't think so!" her high-pitched voice rang in my ears._

 _Turk gave me a pitying look. "Look, man, you know I'd give you a ride, but..."_

 _"It's okay, C-Bear," I shrugged it off. "It's not that far. I can walk."_

 _"I can shoot you a few bucks for a cab," he offered._

 _I grinned. "No, it's cool. Really."_

 _He grabbed his pager as it went off, quickly seeing where he was needed. "Okay. Gotta go, dude. Good luck, V-Bear!"_

 _"You, too, C-Bear! Have fun!"_

And that's what happened.

As I came back to the present once more from my longer-than-average flashback, I noticed the janitor heading my way and quickly dodged into the nearest room. Lurch stumbled by obliviously, smelling strongly of alcohol, and I fist pumped ecstatically at my escape.

I turned around to see where I had ended up, and came face-to-face with Elliot. She furiously wiped at her eyes, sniffling and smoothing her scrubs.

"Oh, hey, Elliot," I said, trying to be sensitive. She was feeling a bit down, of course, and now that she looked absolutely awful it would take careful words so that the last shreds of her self-esteem weren't shattered. "You look...beautiful."

I cringed, hoping she would buy it until she saw her puffy, red-splotched face in a mirror somewhere far away from me.

She cleared her throat and straightened up, jerking her head to one side. I moved out of her way, pressing my back into the shelves of medical supplies. Elliot left without a single word, chin lifted proudly despite her horrid visage.

I raised my fist in tribute to her strength, which would no doubt break down in three, two -

Elliot suddenly veered to the left as Dr. Cox made headway through the hall, and she disappeared into the men's bathroom. A second later, a muffled "Frick!" could be heard. That was my cue to get the hell out of the supply closet before Elliot came looking for me.

"Dr. Cox!"

I ran after him, holding my stethoscope around my neck. When I caught up to him, I kept pace, but he made a point of looking anywhere but me.

"Where are we headed? Wanna have lunch? 'Cause I don't know about you, but I'm starving!"

He stopped in front of the elevator, squeezing his eyes shut as he muttered-slash-prayed for the car to arrive and take him away. The dark circles under his eyes were a sure sign that he would be in an even worse mood today than he was on a daily basis. I knew that he was working hard to keep the coma patient alive. They were pretty much best friends, after all.

I decided to wait with him silently, even though I didn't have anywhere to be.

Actually, I wasn't even working today. But that didn't mean I couldn't hang around, right? Besides, I had to make sure that my friends knew I still loved them, and that they would eventually forgive me. I knew they would never be able to stay away for much longer, so I just had to bide my time.

And then everything would be just fine again, until I made my next mistake.

The elevator finally arrived, and Dr. Cox pushed himself in despite the crowd. There was no room for another person, so I decided to stay behind. I waved as the doors slid shut, but there was no arm room for Dr. Cox to wave in return, so I let it go.

I meandered back to the nurses' station, only to find that my best friend trio were nowhere to be seen. Laverne was talking to someone on the phone, and luckily for me she was just mentioning where Carla had gone: "Carla went to go sit with him in his room. You know, the coma patient. No, I already told you what happened, didn't I? Well, there was a hit and run last night..."

I'd heard enough.

The coma patient was easy enough to find. I'd already spent numerous hours in that room, willing him to wake up. Needless to say I hadn't had much success, but I felt like I was getting somewhere.

I looked in through the window to see not only Carla, but Turk and Elliot as well. It looked as though she had gotten over her appearance in the bathroom. Well, she fixed her makeup, at least. Thank God for makeup.

I shook myself before I could get into a fantasy about what life would be like without makeup and went inside cautiously. They didn't look up or say anything, but nothing needed to be said. We quietly stood together in that small room, looking down sadly at the broken form.

Turk, who was standing closest, had taken the patient's hand gently in his own, tears shining in his eyes. It was hard to make Turk cry. Trust me, I'd know. I still feel bad about telling him his whole family died in a fiery crash, but it had worked.

"You can do it, buddy," Turk said, voice cracking a little. "We believe in you. Everyone's rooting for you."

I smiled softly.

Elliot sniffled on the other side of the bed. "We're so sorry that this happened to you. We never imagined...I mean...If we had just...You have to wake up."

I was glad to see that although they had already said goodbye, they weren't quite ready to give up. I, on the other hand, had not said goodbye, and I wasn't going to. No one was dying that day, no sir! Why? Because Dr. Cox was on call!

Dr. Cox, coincidentally, hadn't said goodbye yet, either. I knew I could count on him to be on my side.

"Oh, Bambi," Carla sobbed.

"It'll be okay," I said. "It just takes time."

But Carla was inconsolable, and she ran out of the room. Turk patted the patient's hand, carefully avoiding the IV line, and then ran after her. That left just me and Elliot, but it seemed that she didn't want to be alone with me. She just nodded once and left.

I stayed.

Everything would be all right.

 _I almost wished I had taken Turk up on his offer to spot me some money for a cab. I was really tired after work. But, since I was already halfway home, I decided to stick it out. Then I remembered that I hadn't had time to eat dinner today because of an emergency, and I was definitely more than a little peckish._

 _But eating would have to wait because I had no cash. Luckily, I knew where Elliot kept her secret chocolate cupcakes._

 _When I reached the street crossing, I waited patiently for the red hand to change to that white walking man. My favorite part was always the countdown, and I waited for it excitedly. At last, the light changed, and I started forward._

 _To my credit, there was no chance in hell that I could have seen it coming._

 _For one thing, I'm pretty sure the guy was inebriated. I mean, why else would he drive with his headlights off, not even attempt to hit the brakes at a red light, and then speed away after it was all said and done?_

 _Of course, I don't particularly remember anything but fragments and flashes, but I like to think I was smart enough to piece it together. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, but it was missing a lot of little details. You could still make out what the picture was without having to look at the box._

 _I had been the victim of a hit and run._

As I looked down at myself - my comatose body that somehow seemed much to surreal to refer to it as anything but _the patient -_ I began to wonder:

Was I ready to go? Were my friends ready to let me go? Was death going to be easy?

 _Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee..._

There were several shouts of alarm as three nurses, an intern, and Dr. Cox barged into my room. Although it wasn't necessary, I stepped out of the way helplessly. Dr. Cox immediately began to bark out orders, hands flying over the tubes that snaked into my dying vessel.

And even though I suddenly realized that the answer to all of my questions were a big fat no...

 _"Clear!"_

Sometimes things happen that are out of your own control...

 _"Clear!"_

And in the end...

 _"Clear!"_

It doesn't really matter how hard anyone tries.

 _"Time of death...5:23 pm."_

 **A/N:** The end. Thanks for reading!

This actually turned out a lot differently than I had intended, but I'm not complaining. I got a little misty-eyed at my own writing...Wow.


End file.
